Sources: The Plainfield-led consortium will pay $105-145 million.
The international consortium that bought the Gadish provident funds is seeking to expand its assets in Israel. Sources inform ''Globes'' that the consortium - Connecticut-based investment house Plainfield Asset Management LLC (61%), Psagot Financing and Factoring Ltd. (TASE:PSFN) (25%), and businessman Ron Weissberg and a group of Canadian investors (14%) - are negotiating to buy the provident funds of Bank Yahav for Government Employees Ltd. These funds manage NIS 7.1 billion in assets.
Market source predict that the consortium will pay NIS 105-145 million for Bank Yahav’s provident funds, amounting to 1.5-2% of assets managed. This is the bank’s second attempt to sell its provident funds.
Last year, Bank Yahav raised its management fees on its provident funds from 0.33% of assets managed to 0.52% in order to make them more attractive for buyers.
The consortium is a new player in Israel financial market, after buying Gadish - Israel’s large provident fund manager - for NIS 688 million, or 3.175% of assets managed from Bank Hapoalim (LSE: BKHD; TASE: POLI).
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on June 10, 2007
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2007